The Teaching Change Partnership: Providing local youth with outdoor, immersive, and culturally aligned environmental education opportunities at Hakalau Forest NWR (HI)

By Dr. Creighton M. Litton, Professor of Forest Ecology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Member, Friends of Hakalau Forest (FOHF) National Wildlife Refuge (past board member)

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS) is home to a spectacular community of endemic and rare Hawaiian plants and animals. Established in 1985 on the windward slopes of Ka Mauna a Wākea (or Mauna Kea) to “protect and manage endangered Hawaiian forest birds and their rain forest habitat,” Hakalau is one of the only places in the state with stable or increasing native forest bird populations. Draped in both ancient and newly restored ‘Ōhiʻa and koa forests, this refuge is a global model and phenomenal biological success story for effective forest restoration and conservation. Only one concern emerges from this story – the refuge is closed to the public for all but one or two days each year as part of a design to protect that biodiversity. However, even a refuge as remote as Hakalau can realize important benefits from engaging the socio-ecological aspects of human presence on this planet. How then do you increase awareness of and support for such a special place while limiting the ability of the island’s residents to establish relationships with that forest and her many unique inhabitants?

In spring 2011, the Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (FOHF) decided to address this conundrum and to focus first and foremost on the youth of the Island of Hawaiʻi – the very people who will fill stewardship positions and make environmental management decisions at places like this refuge long after the old guard has retired. So, we submitted a proposal to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and were awarded $8,125 to develop a program to increase access for local youth on the refuge. From that humble beginning, The Teaching Change Partnership (soon to be rebranded as Pilina ʻĀina, which means to build relationships with the land) has grown into an approximately $200,000/year program that supports two full-time educators and multiple part-time staff across multiple programs with curricula for elementary, middle, and high school students and their teachers. In its current form, Teaching Change is a 100% grant-funded partnership including the Friends of Hakalau Forest, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the US Forest Service, and the Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests. Our partnership works with 4th-12th grade students and their teachers to help them build pilina to the ʻāina they call home. Our programs emphasize both the ecological sciences and Hawaiian culture to shape the career-connected learning of participants, with a focus on: (1) establishing appreciation for environmental stewardship in general; and (2) encouraging participants to pursue future careers in natural resource management and conservation in Hawaiʻi. With thousands of students reached on day and overnight field courses and dozens of teachers reached via professional development workshops in the past decade, our program has grown well outside of the boundaries of Hakalau Forest. But we never lose sight of the fact that the entire program was established at and for Hakalau Forest by the FOHF, and to this day Hakalau remains Teaching Change’s most important outdoor classroom.  

See the Teaching Change Partnership website for more information. Better yet, become a member of FOHF for opportunities to visit the refuge!  

Editor’s Note: As a member of FOHF who has visited this amazing refuge twice, I highly recommend joining the Friends and visiting the Big Island to do some volunteer work at the refuge!